Monthly Archives: October 2012

I don’t think I need to convince many of you of the possible urgent need to build a firearms collection for preparedness, my view is that we are about to see something of a magnitude not seen in several possibly hundreds of generations.

This is not so much what exactly I think I would buy and stock-up on but rather some points on firearms and hopefully get some of you who do not have firearms to seriously start, start, as in last week.

With that in mind I wanted to express a few ideas, until originally posted, I have shared with others only in private.

What would I do now?

A good question, I would want to look at it several ways, I live in a western state that does not have the restrictions of other statist progressive bully-by-proxy busybody infested areas suffer from. Because I live in a firearm friendly state I may be free to gather some items not allowed in other states, countries and cities where you may be reading this…

I should start out by saying that I find rifles far more utilitarian than a pistol, but I would suggest a pistol you find comfortable. I do not think you have to have a .40 (something) plus handgun to be a man – in fact a pistol is a piss poor tool for fighting your way back to the rifle you stupidly left out of reach (my grandfather taught me that). I also recognize that a handgun is a great tool, convenient, easy to conceal (legally please) and of course you can simply use a web search to find hundreds of cases where simply showing a handgun was enough to have the typical predatory, cowardly criminal running away while soiling their pants.

Pistols first

I could list many reasons to have a pistol, and to even apply for your stolen freedoms with a “permit”, (begging for your rights) often just the extraction of your sidearm from its concealed holster will cause a “thug” to back down, but if ever thought I was threatened enough to think I needed to “pull” there would be no time to back down – or reason – because that time would have already passed.

I favor the .357 revolver, and contrary to internet commandos, it is a very effective cartridge. The study of police fatal shootings shows the .357 to be far more lethal than most of the other rounds combined. I would gather that if you think the .357 is not “powerful” then you simply need to shoot a .357 with a 158 gr. HP full power load to see for yourself. I have hunted with a .357 in the past and it is a very effective round for hunting even large game. The .357 is a very accurate round, if you put a scope on a .357 revolver NO ONE will laugh at you, contrary to the snickers you may get with a scope on an AK platform rifle – there is a reason for this… The .357 is also available in may rifle/carbine setups I have owned break-open and lever action rifles in .357 it is a reasonable “brush gun” for hunting and provides for the pistol/rifle sharing-of-ammo concept.

I am also a fan of the 7.62x25mm Tokarev a hot version of the 7.63x25mm Mauser, very hot and very accurate.

I like the 9x18mm Makarov, a small pistol that fires inexpensive ammunition, my wife favors her 9x18mm Makarov above all others.

I eventually standardized on the 9x19mm Parabellum in handguns for the simple reason that it is a standard all over the world, ammo is available and inexpensive. I did not choose 9mm because it is “better” but because good pistols in this cartridge are easy to find, and in the end, any pistol is better than nothing. Future supply and choices in handguns was the deciding factor.

Oh, and before you start busting my chops, I cut my teeth on .45 1911 pistols because that is what my dad loved, I gave up on the .45 the first time I shot my first .357 magnum and never seriously looked back, none of my .357 revolvers ever jammed on me – I could never say that about the 1911. We do have a 1911 pistol in the collection and even the new FNX/FNP .45.

Regardless of what you choose, pick one, practice, stock up on ammo – I keep 500 rounds of factory loaded ammo (or more) for each pistol and components for lots more “home rolled”.

You also want to add a .22 lr pistol – pick one and use it, cheep shooting, I suggest getting a revolver or auto loader to match your main pistol, they even make some conversion kits that are nice to have. A single action cowboy-western revolver with interchangeable cylinders are one of the greatest additions to a backpacking/hiking trip you can have.

Rifles

First on the list get a .22 lr rifle in bolt or auto-loader, and continue to shoot it until you get past 2000 rounds before you even think about putting it to the side, take one every time you visit the range.

How would I do it?

I don’t like the .223 and certainly don’t like the AR platform, but I do (now) have two .223 chambered rifles that survived the recent sell off and replacement, this pair of this model rifle belongs to one of the children and my wife. The two rifles are the SU16CA from Kel-tec. What should be embarrassing for Rugar is that Kel-tec can make a better rifle for less money and it uses standard magazines, is more reliable than the jammin’ jenny, and more accurate than any POS mini-14 junker.

I did chose to make .308 my standard rifle caliber, but if I were to do this from scratch now I would choose the 7.62x54r…

Why? budget and effectiveness.

I would get an auto-loading mag fed rifle and several turn bolt Mosin Nagant 91/30, 91/59 or M44 rifles (and they are drying up in supply).

For the autoloader I would most likely get the Romanian PSL (AK platform) rifle with a little 2 or 4 power fixed scope. In fact talking about this issue with a compatriot I seriously considered selling off my .308 rifle for the cash and getting an Romanian PSL and a SVT40 with a hand full of Mosin Nagant 91/30 rifles for throw-downs, the idea was fleeting.

If the Yugoslavian M76 in 8mm Mauser was less expensive the same thing could be done with 8mm and some M24/47 Yugoslavian Mauser turn bolts, but the autoloader and the ammo is a bit high in price.

Regardless, keep at least 1000 rounds for each rifle of factory loaded ammo, keep the factory ammunition for when the need arises. reloads you have made for that rifle are just a viable if you are careful and meticulous with your reloading, don’t bother to make junker ammo, premium bullets are inexpensive enough to make hunting capable cartridges for junk ammo prices.

The turn bolts in the mix exist for several reasons, one is for reloading, if in the worst case you had to shoot black powder and lead bullets you can load black powder, lead bullets (even paper patched/paper jacketed) and even press out primers knock out the firing pin dent and fill them with two or three toy cap gun caps and have a turn bolt rifle that functions. I hope it never gets down to black powder!

Shotguns

Shotguns – I had forgotten to list them, you need one. I don’t have one for myself but, my wife has an 870 riot gun for home protection (yes it is hers, she made me buy one for her) and my oldest son has an 870 pump fitted with a slug barrel that has interchangeable choke tubes, both are 12 ga. and are in almost unused condition, simply because we don’t use them.

The Air Rifle

The high power pellet rifle – I was never a good shot on the wing with a shotgun, but if it lights and I have a post and notch on it, it’s in the bag. I note the preponderance of pidgins in our area and in a pinch you would have a hard time telling the meat from a dove. The huge selection of air rifles including large caliber pre-charged pneumatic rifles are possibly more logical than even black power rifles – air is free.

Additional items

Just some random thoughts about the current situation, trying to look at this without a sense of panic but rather logic. I am afraid that this will be the last reasonable and possible chance before the hammer falls, in just a few weeks we may see another panic buying spree, this is about the fifth panic in my adult years and they all suck and take years to square-up. I write this knowing I have what I think I need, but I would have liked to keep my habit of trying out new rifles…

1. Caliber compatibility – the more weapons that share ammunition the easier it is to store and keep a handle on.

2. How is the caliber ranked for range and power? (suitability for large US game for hunting)

3. Is it suitable for reloading? (hand-loading used brass)

4. Is it readially available? (both weapons and ammunition)

5. What is the cost vs. value?

6. Are there auto-loading rifles and or magazines available in this caliber? (ten rounds and up)

7. Will there be sources of ammunition later and if not is this a concern?

9. Are they reasonably accurate? – 20 rounds 10 inches at 100 yards in less than two min. (That will kick out a bunch of rifles).

We are not talking about delusions of the mall ninjas – I for one will be bugging in place if the need arises. We want to think about how many uses this can be matched to and if they fit the needs of your area.

I hand-load/reload so even current availability issues are almost always limited to concerns pertaining to the availability of components rather than new or surplus ammunition.

I have posted before, pistols just don’t hold the same interest for me as rifles, I have them, I think they are necessary, but I don’t put much stock in them past that possible “oh, crap” situation – like an attempted car-jacking or similar problem, and as I said it would be a last resort only if the fear of harm is imminent and then “no sword is sheathed without drawing blood” concept applies – the proper tool at the proper time, only when needed. I do and am an open carry advocate.

I also was looking over the load books to confirm and here is the general run down I found (changes from book to book, but they generally follow this trend).

Note this information is for “time era” factory or surplus loadings, modern loads designed for modern powders in new manufacture bolt action rifles can “UP” the power of the 30-06 but this would be damaging or dangerous in the M1, M1917, or 03A3.

The two highest are 7.62x54R and 7.92×57 then 30-06 and then 7.62×51 – if you look at commercial .308 rather than 7.62×51 then you find that it comes within and in some cases surpass 30-06. (again this could be problematic or dangerous for weaker actions such as the M1a or older rifles like the Spanish 7.62×51 conversion Mausers)

The common thought out there is that 30-06 is the most potent, but the numbers prove that the Russian round is the hottest. Also contrary to popular misinformation .308 commercial rounds have a higher pressure and loading parameters than the NATO rounds and so would chart higher.

Using the basic thoughts and my already chosen calibers I was thinking about a .308 bolt action rifle from Savage, the Mark II FVT Savage .22 target rifle and even the .300 AAC BlackOut on the SU16 CA rifle.

Knives one of the areas that warms a human heart, cooking, preparing meat, carving, first aid, hunting, and even fighting if needed. A knife or knives have been some of our first tools we as human developed, once we jumped from knapped flint to bronzes then iron and steel we have always had the developing of knives as a large part of our civilization.

Choosing a knife is like asking to pick a car… what are you going to use it for, what is your budget, what features do you want, what does it need to be made from, how much abuse will it get, how are you going to sharpen the blade, how sharp do you need to keep the blade, what blade shape and design do you need – and on and on….

In this case I am going to talk about a “general purpose” blade, if there ever was one of those in existence. For a bug out bag I would recommend a pocket knife or two, a pocket tool, and a “general purpose” tool type knife.

Knife parts

We can start with identifying the parts, types, and uses in the basic forms first, stick with me as I go over the elementary stuff, as this combined makes your choice clear.

A. blade

B. handle

C. guard

D. pommel, butt or butt cap

E. the edge (the cutting sharpened surface, this is where the grind makes the cross section a sharpened edge)

F. fuller (when recessed often mistakenly called a “blood groove” – when elevated the crest)

The top edge, or thickest part of the blade (often not sharpened) is called the spine.

The fixed blade knife is composed of various parts, not all parts are present on every knife design, and some are cut from or moulded from the same material.

The edge grind

Lets review the properties of the edge grind – this is where you see the term grind, it is where the cross section is narrowed to a cutting edge. What are the basic types of grind?

On the left is the sabre grind cross section (often mistaken for a flat grind), in the middle is the hollow grind cross section, and on the right is the convex grind cross section.

There are actually six common blade cross sections, including the compound edge referred to as a double bevel or compound bevel where the blade narrows then has an abrupt sabre grind at the very edge (actually the most common edge with most fixed blade “tool” knives.

A hollow grind is very sharp but will not keep it’s edge (stay sharp) with extended use, hollow grinds are made with a circular grinding machine (like a grinding wheel or belt abrasive) and are fast to machine produce. When using a flat stone on a knife you will give the very edge a sabre grind, this grind will hold an edge longer but often will not have the butter like slicing effect a hollow grind will. The convex grind cross section takes a particular wrist movement on a flat stone or specialized tools but has the longest lasting edge for heavy use and chopping.

The Tang

The tang is simply the extension of the blade that fits into the handle, some blades are stamped from steel and make their own handles with a pre-shaped and cut tang serving as the handle itself. Most fixed blade knives will have an additional material attached to or moulded over the tang of the blade. There are full tangs visible as an almost sandwich layer between two halves of the handle and hidden tangs of all types.

In the above drawing the dotted lines represent where the additional handle material would sit over the tang of the blades.

The top illustration is of a hidden tang, with a hole for a rivet or a screw, this could be a push tang inserted into a hole in the handle, or an encapsulated tang where the handle would be moulded over the tang. A hidden partial tang does not mean that the blade and handle are not bonded strongly or that it could break easily, this depends on the construction. A hidden partial tang can be useful when a knife with storage in the handle is desired (warning, many poorly made “survival knives” with storage are heavy and will break).

The bottom knife represents the full tang, where the blade material is often visible along the top and bottom of two halves of additional material. Obviously a strong connection is desired but a full tang is not necessary for good strong knife construction.

Blade Shapes (the profile of the blade)

Blade shape is important because the shape can determine what actions the knife is best suited for, say thrusting/stabbing, slicing, picking, carving, splitting, chopping, shaving and other uses.

At the top the clip-point blade, and the bottom represents the drop point blade (with modifications called the pen knife blade).

The clip-point blade is currently the most popular blade shape sold in the US, the sharp edge formed by the tip shape makes this tip great for digging and picking, when the top tip is sharpened it can be used as a secondary cutting edge with an almost ripping effect.

The drop point blade presents a point with more metal and is less likely to break, but the fatter edge makes the point more shovel like and less able to get into small areas for picking, it does make a very good slicing blade that is able to take considerable tip abuse at the expense of tip stabbing penetration.

The two blade shapes above represent two versions of the spear point blade shape, the top is the double edged dagger and the bottom is a spear point where only the leading edge of the spine is sharpened. Obviously the spear point is not only strong but capable of powerful stabbing cuts and will slash along the entire blade.

The double edged dagger blades are notorious for abuse of their owners, a slip of the hand will produce deep cuts into the fingers or thumb of the user, remember a double edged blade cuts both directions on both sides! A spear point blade can be just as useful as a drop point blade, but a full double edged spear point is often considered an offensive weapon. Often an LEO may bypass a large hunting knife but the dagger points will always be viewed as “weapon only”. (I suggest you review your state and local laws, for example here in Colorado open carry of a handgun is not restricted but any knife over 3.5 inches is controlled)

The top blade shape above is the simple swept point blade often called “normal”, “simple point”, or the “puukko” it has a straight top spine and a curved point, this is the starting shape for the clip point design, and is considered the simple general use and most popular blade shape in Europe. The utilitarian design of this point is undeniable, and works very well in the drawing, pull, and slicing strokes.

The bottom illustration is the asian inspired kissaki form (kamasu-kissaki) or “tanto” chisel point a type of point designed to punch into tough leather armor, this shape can be difficult to sharpen and is often regulated to martial arts students who desire an asian traditional blade designed for fighting and combat the blade design is awkward to most westerners.

Blade choice is far more complicated than you would think at first glance the choices seem almost endless. In the end, your desired use or what you think you will use the knife for is the final deciding equation.

My personal choice is pictured above, a simple inexpensive (but reasonable quality) blade that can be attached to web gear or a belt. The “general use” knife is a tool. There are many examples of good quality (again reasonable quality) blades that are relatively inexpensive available on the market.

The Glock above (top) does feature this knife with a saw blade cut into the spine of the knife.

Our additions to the collection, a pair of consecutively numbered Kel-tec PF9 pistols.

The Kel-Tec PF-9

Kel-Tec CNC Industries, an interesting little power-house of a manufacturer, the third largest handgun producer in the U.S. George Kellgren as Chief Engineer will likely continue to make a huge impact in the firearms industry for many more years.

This example of a subcompact pistol, taking the features and design work from the P-3AT and his earlier P11, is outselling the competition by a large margin.

Personal – This is a small lightweight cary pistol that has many points that make it well suited for concealed carry.

Small and thin

Can fit in a pocket

Quick reliable operation

Simple take-down

Double Action

Reasonable trigger and reasonable accuracy

Capable of shooting hand-loaded ammunition

The PF9 fits this list well and I was shocked at how accurate this little pip-squeak actually is on the range.

I do not “enjoy” shooting this pistol, more on this as I progress, I don’t have to love this pistol its reason for existing in the collection has nothing to do with recreation or even open carry, but a down and dirty backup or concealed carry.

Function – Using reloads, white box, bulk Remington and federal and my premium ammunition all worked with excellent results and without incident. I found a distressing problem with feeding with lead bullets as they would simply not function reliably, ever, this is not a huge loss because the pistol will not be used all that often and saving money on ammunition is not the priority.

The PF9 is a miniature 9mm with a high-power inspired tilting lock barrel that keeps the size very very small for a full powered handgun round.

I guess you could call the pistol ambidextrous but there are just not any features to speak of, at least not many that need any ambidextrous access for the use this pistol will fill.

The magazine release could be an issue, as it is with any small pistol there is simply just not much room and the magazine release button is at thumb level. Thinking clearly about the issue this pistol is just not designed nor would it be used for fast magazine changes – it is a “holy shit” self defense handgun for concealment – a concealed option with a full-power punch.

Take-down for cleaning is simple but not as fast as you would get with a more feature packed full-sized pistol. There is an unusual pull-pin that requires the rim of a case or a thin pry tool to remove the subsequent take-down is simple.

This pistol actually has a small mini-hammer in a protected rear slop that is double action only and non-recprocating – that is, it will not reset until the firearm is operated or the slide is actuated again.

Design flaws – The double action trigger on this pistol is smooth enough but is long as would be expected but exists inside a small trigger guard and is “pinch-prone” for larger fingers. The trigger has an exaggerated forward and lower angle with a relatively thin and pointed end. In examining the trigger it looks very similar to the profile of the trigger from the Russian Makarov pistol, but for whatever reason, unlike the Mak this tends to catch the trigger finger inside of the trigger guard and of course leaves little room in the guard for large fingers.

The non-recprocating hammer in double action is simply annoying – if it has to be double action with no single action feature at least make it capable of snapping twice if needed on a primer that is not cooperating as needed.

Small and lightweight, great for carry, painful and at best excessively “snappy” with this full sized round.

Magazine release at thumb-level can be a problem for some, in this case I would think that a rear frame mounted bottom of the magazine release would actually make changing the magazines quicker, a release similar to the Makarov pistol.

While not exactly a design flaw the heavy part of the pistol, the slide, is of course on top, the lightweight handle is very lightweight so the force of the 9mm is increased in its leverage making the pistol have a very unpleasant hard “snap” when firing, I found that after as little as 50 rounds I want to put it back in the box and go to another handgun, for most normal people that would be about a magazine of rounds down range.

Quality – Quality, safe-to-use “state of the art” manufacturing but the fit and finish tends to be, well, kel-tec ish, functional but not all that finished rough and ugly would be descriptive.

Caliber / Ammunition – 9×19 in a subcompact – damn thats both useful and painful. The PF-9 will accept +P ammunition with the recommendation of using it only “from time to time” +P – double damn!

Ergonomics – Ergonomic design to this pistol would be like talking about ergonomics for a smart-phone, it is just not the primary aim. This handgun’s design revolves around the ability to be small and lightweight in that it is tops in the market.

Current production – Production of the PF9 is priority out of the factory in Cocoa, Florida, while you cannot get some of the more interesting firearms due to backlogs this pistol seems to never have much of a lag in availability. The US factory produces a wide range of colors and finishes including camouflage base colors like dark brown, tan, gray, olive green, navy, and of course black with slides of colors, hard chrome plated and blued.

“The whole CC (concealed carry) vs. OC (open carry) debate was started by legitimate training companies to drive up sales, nothing more. Every advocate of CC versus OC is a training company, or a supporter of such companies.” – AZ boots n saddles

I have to agree, our friend AZ may have a point, a point followed by something possibly darker and harder to nail down – the unconscious acceptance of government authority over a right that has become regulated.

Would there be any arguments in the gun community if concealed carry did not involve begging our oppressive government for approval to do something guaranteed by our constitution? How many recognize that our personal arms are the only personal property specifically protected by the Constitution and the anti-Federalist Bill of Rights?

Emotional and irrational statements, statistically untenable propositions, derogatory attacks and decent into juvenile verbiage – the signs of the typical statist anti-gunner, yes but sadly it has become the standard signs of the new anti-OC/only CC is viable proponents, a bunch similar to the haughty hunting-only elitists like the disgraced (black rifle hoplophobe) Zumbo.

Here is a typical anti-gun person confronted with the facts disbelief and cognitive dissonance when their irrational fanciful FAITH is shattered with EVIDENCE.

“Carrying a gun is very dangerous. No doubt this data will be corrected soon to show that there have been dozens (or hundreds) of deaths due to road rage, arguments over parking spaces, lover’s quarrels and the like. And likely thousands of deaths due to negligent discharges. The manslaughter cases for the NDs are probably still working their way through the courts, along with the murder cases. There’s no way almost 403,000 people with concealed carry licenses could only produce one murder and no manslaughters. That would mean everything I’ve been taught about the extreme dangers of concealed carry is wrong. And that’s just … unpossible(sic).”

No, mr. cognitive-dissonance-educationally-indoctrinated-statist it is a FACT as uncomfortable as you may think it is – it IS a fact.

The above was in response to:

“In 2009 there were 402,914 people in Texas who had Concealed Handgun Licenses. During that same year there was exactly ONE CHL holder convicted of murder, ZERO Capital Murder, ZERO Manslaughter. On that one conviction, we don’t even know if the CHL was relevant. He/she may have done murder by knife for all we know. There were 577 convictions for these crimes of citizens who did not have CHLs. Out of the 402K people who had CHLs it is reasonable to assume that there were cases in which the CHL holder used their gun in self-defense, even if no shots were fired.”

Myth 3:Concealed carry will result in increases in gun related deaths, accidents, road rage and crime in general. Letting (simple, untrained and unwashed) civilians (dirty rednecks) carry concealed will result in gun fights in the streets and the “wild west” in our neighborhoods.Fact 3:Exactly the opposite happens. Fact 3a: As of 2002 RTC states had 24% lower total violent crime, 22% lower murder, 37% lower robbery, and 20% lower aggravated assault when compared with non-RTC states (FBI crime statistics). “Concerns that permit holders would lose their tempers in traffic accidents have been unfounded. Worries about risks to police officers have also proved unfounded…National surveys of police show they support concealed handgun laws by a 3-1 margin… There is also not a single academic study that claims RTC laws have increased state crime rates. The debate among academics has been over how large the benefits have been” (“Should Michigan keep new concealed weapon law? Don’t believe gun foe scare tactics,” Detroit News, 1/14/01).

99.9% of self-defense firearms uses do not result in fatal shootings of criminals, an important factor ignored in certain “studies” that are used to claim that guns are more often misused than used for self-protection. Of incarcerated felons surveyed by the Department of Justice, 34% have been driven away, wounded, or captured by armed citizens; 40% have decided against committing crimes for fear their would-be victims were armed.

Then we deal with what you typically see from the gun-ignorant feminized statists in “journalism”

“…people shooting other people for small-time offenses, like stealing the hub caps off cars.”

No factual statistics, no evidence, this statement is of course completely wrong!

“…people hitting bystanders while firing at criminals.”

Wrong again.

“…people shooting at criminals then being shot by police who mistake them for criminals during gunfights.”

Wrong again.

“…people simply blowing their top and waving around handguns to express their anger.”

Wrong again.

“The list of things that can and will go wrong is far longer and more likely than the effective use of a handgun.”

Statistical evidence has proven this not just wrong but completely opposed to the statement.

That’s because 98 percent of these gun enthusiasts won’t have a clue.

Nice little condescending derogatory non-fact pulled from some hack’s nether parts. Not only do I have a clue, but all of the range users I meet are all far more competent and practiced than any police officer I have ever known.

They will have no idea of the laws surrounding self-protection and deadly force.

I have yet to meet a shooter that is not so well versed in the laws that police typically ignorant of (and that should be their job). How many of you are aware that many police departments have a policy of not hiring people with IQs that are “too high”?

They will receive no formal training either in using their weapon or when to use it. They will not regularly practice with that weapon to make sure they can actually hit what they are pointing at. And they most likely won’t know how to maintain that weapon or take the time to do so.

“In short, they will have the same fire power as police officers, but without any of the training, preparation and practice to handle an actual deadly force event”

He is right on one point, most shooters I know could actually outfit several police with better firearms, equipment. Counter to what our lickspittle “journalist”so offensively has written most shooters could teach them more about the law, shooting, and politeness.

In conclusion, please if you are a gun owner and an advocate of gun rights understand that CC or OC both prevent crime, stop thinking that somehow the propaganda by advertisers, NRA RHINO whores, instructors who make a living helping you beg for your rights and the anti-gun statists who love to see us trash each other – remember.

Gentlemen we must all hang together or we shall surely all hang (by the neck) separately – Benjamin Franklin

“Our conclusion from the available data is that suicide, murder and violent crime rates are determined by basic social, economic and/or cultural factors with the availability of any particular one of the world’s myriad deadly instrument being irrelevant.”